Shinya Aoki: "I'm Better And Capable Of Beating UFC Fighters"

“I am not concerned about my opponent. It does not matter who I face — as long as I let my style shine and fully express myself in the ring, everything will be fine. Yes, I want a belt. Actually, let me rephrase that: I just want to win and do not want to lose. For every fight, it simply boils down to my wanting to win, or rather, my dogged determination to win. The belt will follow my victory, so I am focused solely on winning and do not allow myself to be distracted by belt or all the other frivolous stuff…. I am interested in fighting in a cage since a lot of the major promotions hold their fights in the cage nowadays. I am aware that some people raise the question about my viability in the cage — it upsets me whenever I hear them say that I will not succeed fighting in the cage under a different set of rules. I think I will not be beaten by anyone. It is often said that UFC is the pre-eminent force in the MMA world with the best fighters and BJ Penn is number one: (Raising his voice) It does not anger me, but it makes me want to challenge the assertion. I acknowledge their major league status, financial power, the caliber of their fighters, but I do not consider them the number one. I think I am the better fighter and capable of beating their fighters… so yeah, regardless of the opponent, I cannot afford to lose.”

UFC rules would hurt him. There would be no magic pants and wrestlers could grind him up against the cage. Elbows would also be hard for him to deal with. On the contrary though no knees to the head on the ground would benefit him (look at Sakurai fight).

If he could adjust to the rules he would be a force in the UFC. He may very well have the best submission game in all of MMA.

I would love to see Aoki in the UFC but I think that he would have problems (as people had said) with the elbows and the cage. That said i think he would beat pretty much everyone except BJ who would out box him on the feet. Still its a fight I would love to see.